Prose Kills

Book excerpt: Contrary to Plato’s teaching, we need poets, not this Quarrel of Philosopher Kings arguing over who owns what. It was God’s poetic speech, the “Let there be. . .” that created, from nothing, the very world philosopher kings fuss over. It was the poetic speech of Jesus that fed the masses with a couple of fish and a bit of bread. It was his poetry in the beatitudes and parables that opened our eyes to the fat world. And it was his death on the cross that opened a way between our transactional, skinny world and his transformational, fat one. The poems in this book chronicle one man’s journey between these worlds. This journey is not the easy, transactional one prose natters on about (“Just say and do this or that and you will be saved”). This journey requires us to let go of the landmarks that guided us through the skinny world and to have the faith to embrace the fat one. The trip is dangerous, frightening, and requires the poet in us to rise and cry, “I, too, create!” But this journey is also crucial to becoming fully human and, thereby, the Friends of God rather than just his followers.